MLCCs, electronic components including multilayer chips, are chip-type condensers mounted on the printed circuit boards of various electronic products, such as image display devices, computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, and the like, provided with display devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), or the like, allowing electricity to be charged therein or discharged therefrom.
Since MLCCs have advantages including a small size, high capacitance, and ease of mountability, MLCCs may be used as components in various electronic devices.
Recently, as MLCCs have been used in smartphones, wearable devices, and the like, MLCCs have been increasingly miniaturized.
In order to maintain the level of capacitance of the miniaturized MLCCs at the same level as that of larger MLCCs, a larger number of laminated layers or a thinner dielectric layer should be implemented.
Furthermore, in the case of capacitor products manufactured using a thin film method, a method of forming a via electrode to connect an external electrode to an internal electrode and connect internal electrodes to each other is significant. The method of forming the via electrode and the final structure thereof affect the performance of the MLCC.
Prior art methods of manufacturing thin-film MLCCs include a method in which dielectric layers and electrode layers are alternately stacked, and when a via electrode is formed, a single via electrode requires two electrodes. In addition, through this method, the same number of via electrodes as electrode layers may be formed.
Subsequently, a method of patterning, when electrode layers are stacked, may allow even-numbered electrode layers and odd-numbered electrode layers to have different shapes to be stacked, and may allow only even-numbered electrode layers or odd-numbered electrode layers to be exposed when a single surface is etched, and thus an electrode may be connected.
However, since the methods described above require complex processes, and increased manufacturing costs, technologies for facilitating the manufacturing of miniaturized thin-film MLCCs have been demanded.